Amsterdam Russ

This went through eBay a day or two ago. Was it this one or another copy? Here's the link to it... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/THE-CHARADES-LP-UNRELEASED-northern-soul-ACETATE-LISTEN-/111398575902?pt=Music_on_Vinyl&hash=item19efdf5f1e&nma=true&si=lXHr4i%252BkcIQA%252Bw79P87NHDdpB9Y%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Thank you very much! I'm chuffed that you think so.

We had three great weeks on the lovely Greek island of Lesvos not long ago. I'm just sorting through the holiday snaps now and this one immediately stood out for me. It was taken from the balcony of our apartment. I stood there for ages, camera poised, hoping that one of the many swallows, swifts and martins might cut across the scene of the sun rapidly setting into the Aegean sea. The waiting was worth it!

As a buyer, I actively ask sellers if they would be kind enough to provide feedback for me after I've done the same for them. It doesn't work and to-date I've amassed just one feedback.

Still looking...

It is a lot of money, Steve, and how you spend it is entirely down to you. That goes without saying. I'm sure it will give you great pleasure for a good number of years. It's very much like buying records in many respects. They're all indulgences - and we're very much the lucky ones in that we can afford indulgences; we have the quality of life in the main to do so. That said, stuff the camera - I wish I could afford to spend that amount on a decent lens or two

Under two grand? Good Lord! I just upgraded my aged 10 mega pixel Nikon D80 last week to a 24.2 mega pixel Nikon D3200 for the euro equivalent of £265. And there's a 50 euro cash back voucher with it, so approx £220 in total! Each to their own, of course

A friendly squirrel who couldn't resist coming up to say hello.

Excellent! Will look out for it...

Looking for a good clean copy of Sonji Clay - Deeper in my heart (American Music Maker). Postage is to the Netherlands. Please get in touch via PM. Thanks!

Great 45 - just bought a copy a couple of days ago. Like the flip very much indeed - very much in line with the Dakar sound I'm familiar with through the music of the wonderful Orchestra Baobab. Big thumbs-up all round.

Obvious stuff like Chuck Woods - Seven days, Solomon Burke - Cry to me, Dobie Gray... Not so much 'Northern' as 60s club classics, but it was a great surprise to be hearing this stuff on a Friday night bowling session on the outskirts of Amstelveen. Thought it probably a one-off, but they played similar stuff on another occasion, too. It's everywhere!

In bowling alleys in the wilderness of the Netherlands that exists beyond Amsterdam...

There was a study some years back into the changes that happen to the brains of would-be "Black Cab" drivers in London when they study 'the Knowledge'. I wonder if the ability to store and process vast amounts of geographical data - as in the case of licensed taxi drives - is in some way similar to the memory recall experienced some collectors relative to label and other data. Here are some snippets from a news report on the study: Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111208125720.htm

A scary thought. The one in the pic looked a real monster excepting for the reality of its actual size. The pic was taken flat to the subject, so doesn't really show just how amazingly thick set and armour plated it looked. Give it a three-foot wingspan and you'd need to be out there defending yourself with something that was mightily powerful - and lightning fast!

This fine creature, a Green Darner I believe, and a good 2½ inches long, paid a visit to our 2nd floor balcony early evening and rested on the railings for a good while.

Most sources I've come across suggest that it's because they have red legs - and so share a similarity with the trousers worn by French soldiers in times past. And they originated from the warmer climes of France and Italy, too. Nice concise overview of their introduction into the UK here... http://www.purdey.com/shooting-life/a-guide-to-game-birds/red-legged-partridge/

Aka French partridges - if I recall my Observer Book of Birds correctly. Really nice shots

What an absolute tragedy. It brings home to you just how fragile human existence is in reality. One day you're doing whatever it is that you do, and the next you're gone. I think the helplessness of it all makes matters worse. We have no control, no say, no power to prevent it, and often no warning. The shock and the void for family and friends must be immense. I can only offer condolences and add them to the collective emotional voice that is raised here for one who has made a mark on the lives of so many just by being themselves - a genuine human being. RIP Bob.

Have to say I also really rate his other Pye cuts "You're wong there baby" and "I've laid some down in my time". Both absolutely storming tracks!

The horns sound very southern to me - Memphis, Muscle Shoals, perhaps - rather than Chicago. In fact, the whole thing sounds very southern. Couldn't put a finger on it and say why exactly. It just does.

Not much point. It's just a blank white label. Well, except for the sticker removal scuffs. Got four test presses off someone and he had to have gone and put stickers on every one saying what the track was. I think there was even a euro-sized circle with a capital A in it to show which were the A sides! Got two Little Richard's, a Five Du-Tones and a Jimmy Robins "Can't please you" - all with the same bloomin' stickers on. They came off all right, but at a cost to the labels underneath!

I'm confused. Isn't radio with moving pictures know as telly?

Yes, I read all the posts and was just contributing to the general discussion, not your post specifically